POETRY

Cody, Wyoming
Fourth of July, 1976

John Wayne waves
from open-topped tail fins
Americana on a roll
and everyone's a cowpoke
Me
leaning against a wall
lookin' mean
like James Dean
slicked down hair and
wrapped in blue denim
jeans and jacket
well-worn boots
kicked out in front of me

The redskins stand
stiff and dumb
feathers and paint
too bright
plastic nose bones
impotent spears
maybe just little boys
posing as Indians

I sang "amber waves of grain"
till blue in the face
and rode silent across plains states
Every tree concealed a bobcat or bear
every license plate a game
Dad smiled
on that Bicentennial
watching me in buckskin vest
watching geysers at Yellowstone
throwing snowballs at the mountains

Cannon fires from within
shotgun float rolling
down mainstreet Cody, Wyoming
BOOM!
We laugh at how loud

I stand awkward next to players
in the historic drama of USA
hands jammed in pockets
already looking too bored for all this
and Dad shifts for best
Insta-matic light

We are glaring at him
my red-skinned brothers and I
waiting for him to take it